Sunday, March 13, 2011

"Manners Monday" - Road Rage!

I love driving. I think I have always enjoyed it from the moment I received my learners permit many years ago. Give me some good music and an open road and I am set! Not to toot my own horn (no pun intended), but I actually think I'm a pretty good driver. I've even had a fantasy about opening my own driving school geared towards women because we drive intrinsically different from men. We are perpetually dashing from here to there, we have screaming and fighting kids in the car and we are multitasking feeding baby bottles, checking homework and thinking about the 3000 errands we need to get done in a given day.

Needless to say, we are driving on the edge. We are running on fumes with barely any sleep and our patience is typically lower than our male counterparts. So what do we do? We take our frustration and anger out onto the road. As such, my writing partner, Jennifer Brandt, and I decided it was time to bring to light the increasingly upsetting problem of road rage, especially in the school parking lot. Check out our latest "Manners Monday" video and try these driving etiquette tips the next time you feel yourself on the verge of losing it.

Etiquette Tips to Help Curb Road Rage in the School Parking Lot or Anywhere

Give yourself plenty of time to arrive at your destination.

Refrain from cell phone conversations when entering the parking lot so that you can be present to the situation at hand.

Don’t sweat the small stuff, if someone’s driving is bothering you, take a breath and count to ten.

Lay off the horn and the profanity, especially if children are in the car, you don’t want to set a bad example for them.

Never give someone the “finger.” It is just plain rude!

Do you have a crazy road rage story you'd like to share? Send us your tale and let us know how you dealt with the situation. We'd love to hear from you!